Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-07-11
VISION OF A NIGHT.
ANNA RANDALL DIEHL TELLS A
STRANGE, WEIRD STORY.

STRANGE, WEIRD STORY.
A Summer Nights Experience In the
Haunted Room of . House in Hamp-
shire, EngIand-The Romance Of Life
Revealed-"Ths Music Of the Spheres ~
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, July T.
had advertised in a London paper for
board, and was settled for the summer in a
great rambling house just In the outskirts of
pretty but quaint old town. had parlor,
q cozy study, where my meals were also
served, and bedroom. The apartments were
suited to, my wants and quite according to
my taste. There was q vine covered porch
where swung my hammock. Here, too, in
a corner shaded by clustering leaves was a
little table where wrote ON pleasant days.
One afternoon while sitting there watched
o humming bird as it fitted from branch to
branch, when voices reached my ear, and l
listened, almost unaware. "And does the
lady occupy the haunted roomsr said one.
ayes, she does not know the tales, and may
not have been disturbed as yet, but she will
hear the voices some time, and then our poor
landladys rooms will again be vacant"
"Tel me the story, said the first speaker. ri
have never heard it in detail, though from
snatches gathered here and there I am "a
mliar with the general outline"
And this was the substance Of the narrative
heard. Long ago, when the house was new,
q young couple, lately married, were its occu-
pants and owners.
The lady was beautiful, though she had
great sad eyes, and did not seem happy Her
husband was man Of wealth, intelligence,
and of good birth, but rnorose in manner
and unpopular in the neighborhood.
How the marriage had COME about NO one
could tell; it was apparently only a union in
name as far as the husband was concerned,
though the lady seemed to love this man Of
ice with strange and almost worshipful de-
votion.
A child at last came into this inharn1o,iiou.
household, and for a time its presence seemed
to develop almost human affection in the
fathers heart
But there were stories told by servants of
their masters harshness to his gentle wife,
and these the gossips caught and told with
additions of their own.
Three OF four years passed on, when the
country was suddenly startled by the sudden
death OF the lady, and after the funeral was
over there were hints that all was not we'll
The family physician, however, who had
been called in just in time to see his patient
breathe her last told ii plausible story, which
displayed much medical profundity that the
country people could not understand, and SO
they were COMPOUNDED into silence.
Not many months had passed, when the
grass of spring had grown about the grave
and the yiolets were filling the air with
fragrance, the house became vacant.
I'm rnv,t r1,,x s,,t,.
Of the place was directed to send all letters to
the owner to certain address In London,
and nothing ii1ore was known.
1t might have been the VARYING sound OF
the wind, but it was affirmed that there were
human voices heard at night In the empty
house; mans tones, metallic and unfeeling,
a womans pleading voice mingled with so BIS,
and the prattle of a little child
And so as these reports were current. year
nfter year the house stood vacant, until at
last was found a tenant, boarding house
keeper, who was willing to face the super-
natural terrors q lie pace al view or having
little rent to pay.
The story ended, knew that must be
the lady mentioned who occupied the haunted
rooms. No manifestations had been made to
me- ana was not given to superstitious fears
But the thread of my writing had been snap
ped asunder, ard wishing to dismiss the
story from my mind, l stretched myself In
the hammock and was soon lost in a fascinat-
ing book, the gift of friend, and which the
morning mail had brought me-.
***
had lodged i'll the rooms a month, md
had never heard unusual sounds or seen anv.
thing to rouse my fears, but the night follow
ing that very day, as if to make the words I
had overheard come true, had vision
l awoke suddenly to find standing in the
middle OF my room tall fgure As the
moonbeams came faintly through the vines
and entered the windows, saw beautiful
woman clad in flowing white In the hollow
of one hand she held something like vestal
lamp, which burned with a pale blue flame.
and with the other she beckoned me to fol.
low her, with strange magnetism which l
found impossible to resist.
l obeyed hesitatingly. I had locked
and bolted my door when went to bed, but
It now opened without touch at our an
proach, and closed when we had passed out
side.
My guide went on before, while followed
IS she led, and with the same gliding move
nent as her own, in which there was no
measured tread or use of feet. Out under
he stars we went, and as looked I'D to the
vault above seemed under her guidance to
athom the mysteries of the armament. TO
zee what could not be discovered by the nat
iral eye ercn though gazing through the
telescope, and while was wrap1ed
II wonder and delight something like the
livine strains of grand oratorio burst upon
ny ears.
ut is the music of the Spheres" said my
pirit guide.
When that sound hal died away heard
amt melody beneath my feet which learned
vas the music of buds as they unfolded into |
caves, and as color was added to the expand- !
ng petals of the flowers it came with dane |
ng rhythm, breaking with exquisite har-
nony upon my ear.
"Iou wonder at what you see and hear,
nut You must know that long before the crea-
ION OF the objective man there existed ethe-
cal races in whom. as cycle after cycle
oiled ON. the senses one by one developed.
he spiritual eye and ear then saw and heard
hat has been Shut out by physical grossness
nee Adam came. But there have been in
II ages favored few who have retained tL;s